Robert Lockwood Jr.

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Robert Lockwood Jr.

Background information
Birth name	Robert Lockwood Jr.
Also known as	Robert Jr Lockwood
Born	March 27, 1915
Origin	Helena, Arkansas
Died	November 21, 2006
Genre(s)	blues
Instrument(s)	guitar
Years active	1930s — 2006
Website	http://www.robertlockwood.com/

Robert Lockwood Jr., also known as Robert Jr Lockwood, (March 27, 1915 – November 21, 2006) was an American blues guitarist who recorded for Chess Records in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a longtime collaborator and Chess Records studio guitarist for Sonny Boy Williamson II.

1 Early life
2 Early career
3 Later Career
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] Early life

Robert Lockwood Jr. was born in Turkey Scratch, a hamlet west of Helena, Arkansas. He started playing the organ in his father's church at the age of 8. The famous bluesman Robert Johnson lived with Lockwood's mother for 10 years off and on after his parents' divorce. Lockwood learned from Johnson not only how to play guitar, but timing and stage presence as well. Because of his personal and professional association with the music of Robert Johnson, he became known as "Robert Junior" Lockwood.

[edit] Early career

By age 15, Lockwood was playing professionally at parties in the Helena area. He often played with his quasi-stepfather figure, Johnson, but also occasionally with Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II) or Johnny Shines. Lockwood played at fish fries, juke joints, and street corners throughout the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s. An anecdote from Lockwood's website claims that on one occasion Robert Johnson played on one side of the Sunflower River, while Lockwood played on the other, with the people of Clarksville, Mississippi milling about the bridge, unable to tell which guitarist was the real Robert Johnson.

Lockwood played with Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) in the Clarksdale, Mississippi area in 1938 and 1939. He also played with Howlin' Wolf and others in Memphis, Tennessee around 1938. From 1939 to 1940 he split his time playing in St. Louis, Missouri, Chicago, Illinois and Helena.^[1]

In 1941, Lockwood made his first recordings with Doc Clayton in the "Bluebird" sessions, held in Aurora, Illinois. During these sessions, he cut four singles in his name, which were early versions of his staple repertoire.[1] The recordings were released on Bluebird Records.

Also in 1941, Lockwood and Williamson were featured on the very first King Biscuit Time radio show at the historic KFFA station in Helena. For several years in the early 1940s the pair played together in and around Helena and continued to be associated with King Biscuit Time. From about 1944 to 1949 Lockwood played in West Memphis, Arkansas, St. Louis, Chicago and Memphis.^[1] Lockwood was an early influence of B.B. King and played with King during his early career in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1950 Lockwood settled in Chicago and in the 1950s played on Williamson's second Chess Records album which also included Willie Dixon and Otis Spann. Lockwood also performed and/or recorded with Little Walter, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Boyd and Muddy Waters.

[edit] Later Career

In 1961 Lockwood moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he resided until his death. In the early 1960's, as "Bob Lockwood, Jr., and Combo," he had a regular gig at Loving's Grill, located at 8426 Hough Avenue. In the 1970's through the 1990's, he performed regularly with his band the "All Stars" at numerous local venues, including Pirate's Cove, The Euclid Ave. Tavern, and Peadbody's. For the last few years of his career, Lockwood played at Cleveland's Fat Fish Blue (corner of Prospect and Ontario, downtown Cleveland) every Wednesday night at 8 p.m.; the "All Stars" have continued to perform there after his passing.

His Cleveland period also saw the release of some of his best studio recordings, first with a pair of albums with the All Stars on the Trix label, and then with Johnny Shines for two LP's on the Rounder label. Although he seldom performed without his band, he also recorded a solo album of his own material along with a few Robert Johnson standards under the title "Plays Robert and Robert."

His last known recording session was carried out at Ante Up Audio [2] studios in Cleveland, Ohio where he performed on the LP "The Way Things Go" with long time collaborator Cleveland Fats for Honeybee Entertainment.